FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD46 → Tell a Fairy Tale

Tell a Fairy Tale

By zesix, TravisA and Simin

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall23812.7963
Fun22212.7363
Innovation19012.9263
Theme22352.9963
Graphics22062.5667
Audio13852.7763
Humor16362.4660
Mood21592.7260

Comments

wittycognomen 2020-04-20 19:59

I'm not entirely convinced that you made that tinkerbell asset yourselves.

gord10ahmet 2020-04-20 20:11

I have no idea about how to play this game. All I can do is fly around.

zesix 2020-04-21 01:41

@wittycognomen , we did not. Most of the aesthetic is made from scratch. Just not the characters.

@gord10ahmet , flying around is the only mechanic. We chose not to make extremely explicit instructions on the gameplay because it's a simple, artsy entry. You wow the kids and avoid the staff as it says. However, I've added an update that states this more clearly.

mhykah 2020-04-21 03:11

Interesting game mechanic! At first it was hard to understand the goal and the difference between the children and the staff but once I did, it felt like a unique twist on the stealth game genre with a very different skin! I enjoyed the sound and the music, I'm even listening to the background music now as I type this comment. Small critiques is that the rooms felt like they were designed similarly so it was hard for me to know where I was and where I needed to go at times. The text was very thematic but a little hard to read. But with a few small changes I could see this being a very interesting game. Great job!

zesix 2020-04-21 03:13

Thank you for your honest review, @mhykah !

123seven3 2020-04-21 03:51

If you're not using original graphics, you should opt-out of that category

zesix 2020-04-21 04:11

@123seven3 , most of the level is made from scratch, just the characters aren't.

sandra-martinez 2020-04-21 05:56

The only drawback to me is that it's hard to distinguish between the children and the adult. Beside that, anything is okay. I like your game

chilleh 2020-04-21 06:35

What a unique interpretation of the theme! I enjoyed this short game! I wasn't exactly sure how I was getting caught in the game, so maybe a bit of an indication would be more suited. Overall, I had a great time, thanks!

d1str4kt0r 2020-04-21 07:26

I like flying around

antti-niemi 2020-04-21 08:37

Cool idea. At first I couldn't tell apart the children from the staff (they scared me a bunch of times), but after that very nice experience

no-grapes-games 2020-04-21 08:46

The idea was good. I really like the layout of the house, it had a good flow. It was difficult figuring out who was an adult but it wasn't that bad. Maybe a red outline on the adults would have helped? The music and sound were very pleasing! The adults did see the fairy through walls, that was kinda a bummer but I think overall it was a solid entry. Tinkerbell is a sweetie!

quacky22200 2020-04-21 10:24

The angle can be hard to understand with the interesting snowflake like carpets, and can feel difficult to navigate because of this. Making your own fairy would have scored you better, and the main music/sfx sound too 'Disney'-like to seem fair-use/original, otherwise I would've scored higher than this. The theme works but the mechanics feel a bit limited, perhaps ran out of time? (edited spelling)

simin 2020-04-21 12:53

Accidental double post!

simin 2020-04-21 12:57

@quacky22200 The music was just imported from the free puzzle music pack in the asset store. It's not a Disney song.

As far as mechanics are concerned, we originally had other things like hiding & jumping, but universally agreed to scrap it... oof. Tinkering with the camera was the last thing we were still adjusting before running out of time. Darn time constraints!

trexxak 2020-04-21 18:31

Fun little game! I could see how this game scales in difficulty as it progresses, with fun bonus objectives and easter eggs. The game runs really smooth and the gameplay is enjoyable!

That being said, it would have been nice to cut down on borrowed assets. Totally understandable why you would use what is already out there with all the time concerns, but it's just a shame I couldn't see what YOUR fairy looks like.

fabula-rasa 2020-04-21 18:47

I had a quite a bad experience with ingame camera. It kept resetting to a totally top-down view. I could correct it by zooming in but it kept going back to top-down the second I moved. From top-down, you can't say who is the child and who is an adult until they actually react to you. Made the game unplayable really :(

I enjoyed the music though :)

epsulon 2020-04-21 19:37

There is a very good song, and i like this font

johnnydalvi 2020-04-21 19:51

Nice entry, I really like the aesthetics on this one :D I like the stealth mechanic. If I were to point into something to improve upon, I would say to make it more obvious which one is the kid and which one is the adult, it's hard to tell since the camera is top down

zesix 2020-04-21 21:12

@fabula-rasa , @johnnydalvi , good points. I've just pushed an update where the staff are easier to spot while flying.

I went back and forth on the camera controller. We originally planned to just have it top-down and you can't zoom in at all, but I felt like the level was beautiful so if you wanted to zoom in while dazzling the kids, you'd be able to do so. But flying while zoomed in wasn't the experience we wanted (too difficult to navigate indoor rooms), so I had the camera snap back to the overhead view so you can see where you're flying. But as you two mentioned, that made it difficult to identify the staff. But now the experience should be more pleasant with this update :)

dukebot 2020-04-21 22:46

Interesting original game, I'm not fan of stealth games but I enjoyed playing this. The art is cute and the music charming!

skleembof 2020-04-21 23:58

I love stealth games and the gameplay in this game was pretty good. I just don't get why you decided to use a premade tinkerbell character when a simple primitive with particles could have passed for a fairy. You should at least opt out of the graphics category if you didn't make them all yourself.

Other than that, I loved the idea for keeping it alive

robowarrior1982 2020-04-22 06:51

The idea is cute and concept of game of cat and mouse is fun and addictive ! message of the game is beautifull. Camera may be perfectible, you may add some SFX for feedback. But i don't understand, del to restart ? Other game use 'R' for restart, and think to add a small menu or just a push escape key to quit game next time ! Else that's a good job !TD2.jpg

zesix 2020-04-22 07:05

@robowarrior1982 , the restart key shouldn't matter since you only get the option to restart when you lose and the key is explicitly stated on the defeat screen. Our key choice for the restart isn't a legitimate gripe about the game. As for a pause menu - we unfortunately didn't have time for that, and quite frankly most other entries don't have one either, including yours. All this being said, I'm glad you enjoyed our entry :)

robowarrior1982 2020-04-22 07:35

@zesix hey there is no problem! this is not free criticism, just suggestions for improvement, for the R button there is a simple reason, look.keyRe.jpg

minusc 2020-04-22 10:06

That was quite cute and funny. It's a little hard at first to see the difference between gards and kids, but you get it after a few bad endings. And also you can't quit, there's no option, so you restart for ever xD Nice job, nice little game !

pagetb 2020-04-22 17:10

cool game!

xeno-software 2020-04-22 19:43

This was a really cool game, though I would've preferred some UI elements, like a timer. The music was really cute and fit the mood of this game really well. I found the game a bit hard to control, I would've preferred a third-person controller, which could transform the game into a stealth game, a bit like MGS. The beginning was super cool, and I really enjoyed playing the game overall. Thanks for making this!

zesix 2020-04-22 19:49

@xeno-software , valid points. To clarify: You don't lose because you ran out of time, you lose because you got caught by the staff. We tried a third person controller but it made navigating indoors difficult. You aren't a human stuck on the ground, you're a nimble fairy, so you wouldn't be moving the same way Snake does in MGS. It was tough trying to capture the flying indoors feel (not many games are both flying and indoors lol). Thanks for sharing your feedback!

lukas-mayer 2020-04-23 00:23

The view angle is amazing, although a bit glitchy, really love the soundtrack. Quite unique compared to what else you can find for this jam.

randdir 2020-04-23 06:56

Well at first I got my idea on how Tinkerbell could inspire people but... it's gonna be rated 18 (thanks to Rule 34). Nevermind really cool entry team, guess you've got to improve camera otherwise good job. Keep it up !

pusheeneiro 2020-04-23 10:48

Very uncommon idea, great job.

joamd 2020-04-25 05:07

Nice idea. The art looks nice. Nice music! Although at first it was hard to understand the goal soon I caught up Maybe a bit short gameplay but you can extend it in post jam version maybe

Also, when moving around in the ground floor sometimes, some parts / rooms / people from the first floor are visible

dps2004 2020-04-26 16:01

you *really* should have opted out of the graphics and audio categories, considering you did not make these.

marcmagus 2020-04-26 19:20

Thanks for bringing your game by my stream to play. If you'd like to watch again, the highlight is at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/603497061

splitpainter 2020-04-27 08:34

I like ideas like this, which are very original, and to be honest, this game inspired on many possibilities. Initially I was lost, but then I was hooked, cool game guys! I won't comment on technical stuff because I think the other commenters did that already.

Just a bit weird using Disney art (I googled and checked that Tinker Bell is public domain, but the way it is represented here is Disney created or am I wrong? Please let me know), I would rate 5 stars if it was an original type of fairy, for example.

zesix 2020-04-27 08:52

@marcmagus , as far as I know, we didn't bring our game to your stream to play. Was someone else impersonating that he made our game? I watched your highlight and your concerns are valid. The camera controller is something we should have spent more time on, but we didn't allocate enough time to gameplay testing. Unfortunately, an uncommon entry like this really has to nail so many things right to be considered good.

@splitpainter , thank you for the comments. I do try to submit original entries when I do jams. Tinkerbell is something we debated on - if we used a non-Disneylike Tinkerbell, it may not be clear it's Tinkerbell since the general association for her is the blonde-haired green-clothed fairy Disney is known for popularizing. But for those who have a greater background with the history of Peter Pan productions, yes, we could have made Tinkerbell look like any fairy. I figured if the fairy didn't look like Disney's Tinkerbell, we'd get some complaints about the fairy's look. And of course we got complaints because she DID look like Disney's Tinkerbell, so it's likely a consequential choice either way.

marcmagus 2020-04-29 19:23

@zesix I guess? There was a kind of weird comment from the person who brought it by in chat now that I think about it. What a strange thing to fake. I hope you got some value out of watching, and sorry some of my commentary toward the end may have been both a little weird and a little more negative than I'd prefer because of that.